Time for Tex’s critics to wise up on Lever chat

THE recent condemnation that we have seen of Taylor Walker, which has bordered on demonisation, has been appalling and must cease.

It started with Walker’s curt but understandable speech after the Crows’ grand final loss. It then built to a crescendo after award-winning Herald Sun journalist, Mark Robinson, accused the Crows skipper of acting like a “buffoon”.

Robbo, whose Fox Footy persona is built on his own brand of shambolic buffoonery, must surely recognise the hypocrisy, if not the complete fallacy, in that observation.

Another award-winning Victorian journalist, Caroline Wilson must also face accusations of hypocrisy after first criticising Walker in her column for his parting conversation with Jake Lever, then defending him on her regular segment on FIVEaa.

Walker's blunt Lever call67000

Walker's blunt Lever call

10 Oct 2017

One by one the Victorians have lined up to whack the Crows skipper, with David Schwarz and Jimmy Bartel having their say as well. All this because Walker expressed his dissatisfaction to Lever that he was leaving. There was no abuse, just disappointment that the defender on whom Adelaide had gambled in the 2014 draft when other clubs had been spooked by his knee injury, was walking out on his club. Did Tex take it personally? Darn right he did.

The reaction, mainly from across the border, has been perplexing. It is true that Lever’s teammates reacted differently to the news of his defection but Walker is the captain. This is his team, built through the times of crisis and adversity to challenge for the 2017 premiership, for which it was the hot-favourite. Disappointment was always going to be obvious in any discussion after the charade that Lever enacted in the lead-up to the finals. A player who has been there only three years walks out? He’s hardly going to shower him with confetti.

The late Phil Walsh, on whose all-too-brief tenure this current Crows resurgence has been built, spoke in 2015 about man conversations. “Man conversations means speaking your mind, even if you may not get what you want, so everyone knows where you stand on issues. That’s the culture we want at the Adelaide footy club,” said Walsh.

Don Pyke has shaped this team to his own ideals but the concept of Walsh’s “man-conversations” is very much alive at West Lakes. Can’t those critics of Walker understand that, at worst, his exchange with Lever was nothing more than a man-conversation? Had it been Luke Hodge or Joel Selwood giving short shrift to a player walking out after only three years, Victoria’s fawning media would be gushing in exaltation of their leadership.

Green 'he's an inspiration'110000

Green 'he's an inspiration'

12 Oct 2017

In the past two seasons Walker has been recognised by his peers as the best captain in the AFL. The accolade has not appeased critics who would like to see his on-field leadership modelled more on the style of those other great key forwards, Wayne Carey and Jonathan Brown. However, not only is he a great ambassador for the club, he was in 2017 the foundation on which the best forward line in the competition was built. Those critics can have their say when he doesn’t crash a pack but they cannot question his passion or his loyalty.

It’s true that the concept of loyalty within today’s AFL has been severely tested by the advent of free agency and the ruthless attitude of some clubs when it comes to terminating players no longer required. But loyalty to a cause, a club and, more importantly, a group of teammates, is still very much vital to team-building. Whereas in the past that loyalty may have lasted a lifetime, in today’s AFL it has a use-by date.

Yet it is certainly expected to last more than the three years that Lever gave the Adelaide Crows. Walker, his captain, should never be criticised for being a little gruff in his goodbye to Lever. If anything, he could have gone harder. It’s what the majority of Crows fans were thinking anyway.